February 14-18, 2011

[LeClerc]

In one of D&D's intro interviews they claimed that they wanted one of hallmarks of their time at AMC to be lots of short-term returns like Broderick was doing with Brooke at the time. I (stupidly) believed them because they seemed to be setting realistic expectations - promising only short-term arcs and not any long-term fan favorite returns.

[Llantano Incorporated]

Jessie and Angie, Jennie & Greg- Both iconic. AMC was my mom's show before she went back to work in 1985- I remember watching all 4 of these characters. My mother adored all of them. My main memory of AMC as a kid was how much I adored Phoebe Wallingford, and how she would always constantly look directly in the camera!! LOVED HER. I also remember Donna and some nightclub fire, and Benny! I never watched AMC again until a few months during 1991? (Janet and the Well) and that was it. But anyone knows that AMC and GH will always be ABC's iconic soaps.

And Marceline, I was thinking the SAME thing after reading your posts!!!

When I watch OLTL now, however flawed it is, there is a real spark of life to it, kind of a vitality.. I don't see this on the other soaps. And I STILL think it will be cancelled first. At this point they will just make AMC as profitable as they can, knowing full well that they will cancel it in 12 months or so.

But if we don't hear about new headwriters for AMC soon, I will take that as a sign that the surviving show will be OLTL. I would say our predictions here are split 65/35 at this point, which surprises me.

[Kylie]

I still think it's fabulous that a piece that itself says it doesn't know what if any effect the 'announcement' will have on the soaps, has taken on these epic proportions.

We might all just be a bunch of drama queens when all of this is said and done.

[marceline]

It's funny. I've been thinking about this a lot and I know I said a few pages back that I'd want AMC to get that extra year to say goodbye but when I really started to think about what that would look like, who I'd like to see and the exodus of young talent that's already taken place I realized it would be utterly horrendous. It won't be a year of saying goodbye, it'll be a year of watching it die. It'll be like watching a neighborhood as one house after another is foreclosed upon: the people disappear, the lawns stop getting mowed, pets get abandoned and turn into strays, windows get boarded up and the people who remain do their damnedest to keep their property values up. I don't want that for AMC. Hell, as much as I hate on OLTL I don't want that for them either.

Make the announcement then give them the morphine overdose. I don't want to watch a year of the actors I still love working the TV equivalent of selling oranges by the freeway. That would be heartbreaking.

Geez I mix a lot of metaphors but you know what I mean.

*bats eyelashes and tosses hair like Erica Kane*

Why of course we're all drama queens.

*sips her sparkling cider*

[LoyaltoAMC]

I agree with almost everything you wrote. OLTL definitely has more life to it than AMC. There's a spark of energy there, and I also honestly think it's more compatible with GH as a timeslot companion than AMC is, just because it's got a gritter, urban, and more contemporary feel than AMC. Having said that, at the end of the day, I think they'll stick with the more iconic AMC over OLTL, if the decision does come down to axing one of these shows. I don't think their numbers will be a factor, since they're pretty much statistically tied in all the major categories. I obviously have no idea what each show's balance sheet looks like, but it's hard to believe that AMC, with the cost-saving move to LA, slashed salaries for the scant remaining vets, and lots of low-rent newbies, is over budget. If that were the case, why wouldn't JHC have been canned ages ago? And OLTL, with it's costly NYC digs and lots of pricy vets, is way under budget LOL? None of that ever made sense. I think that that was just a lot of fan speculation. I would hope they'd axe D&D, but is it possible that the suits at ABC think they're doing a decent job? They've kept the show essentially stable and somewhat competitive, and maybe that's their end goal...just to keep it as stable and competitive for as long as possible. I don't think anyone's laboring under any illusion that these shows have the potential of any long-term gains. They've been on a downward trajectory forever and that will continue to be the case.

[Carolyn1980]

Toups, could you double-check your women 18-49 rating for AMC?

I've just been told that AMC actally garnered 0.7/479,000 in that category this week. Could your source have accidentally transposed 479,000 to 497,000? Because your source doesn't jibe with the ABC press release either.

Thanks!

[Saving ATWT]

If OLTL gets the ax, I could see Frons using FV as the new AMC EP. He supposedly has kept OLTL in the black for years and would be a logical choice provided he is willing to make the move. Maybe even RC would be shifted considering he is on contract. I do think he is a good writer aside from the camp.

I don't think ABC ever planned to save OLTL or the show would have been moved out to LA by now, too. Clearly, they were trying to think long term for AMC in terms of cost. Filming in NYC is very expensive regardless of any creative production models. Also, the city tax credit expired last year whic must be adding somewhat to cost.

I used to see a lot of soap people here from ATWT, GL, OLTL and AMC. It was cool to see a soap star on the subway or walking down te street.

[Jess]

AMC must really be bad if OLTL has more life. Marceline, I think your post about AMC was well-done. AMC has such a proud history that it deserve better than a year of getting worse and worse for the simple reason of a farewell lap. Let its viewers have their good memories.

I think OLTL probably has already outlived its time for that fond reflection.

[Toups]

It says 0.8/497,000, so that's what I gotta go with. The 0.7/479,000 could be just the "Live" ratings?

[Carolyn1980]

I don't know...my source was pretty adamant, lol.

I checked the ABC press release to see whether yours or hers made sense, and if you look at what ABC claims its weekly average is, the 479,000 for AMC fits it, while a 497,000 would have given them a higher weekly average....

Oh, well.....guess it doesn't matter that much : )

[Darcy]

I would think that the ratings for soaps will improve once SN ends in ten months. Also as far as AMC and OLTL, I thought AMC had higher ratings on SN, although I haven't seen SN ratings in awhile. Maybe that is something that is being factored in.

I also assume other ways to watch the soaps are taken into consideration. For example, for On-line broadcasts in January, GH was the number 8 program with most unique viewers (534K) and Y&R was number 2 (13.1M) and DOOL was number eight (6M) with total streams. The Bachelor (UGH!) was #1 for both. Click here for more details:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/02/25/abc-com-is-the-no-1-online-broadcast-site-for-january-2011/83832

For the HiC episode "I Love Lucci Pt. 1", total viewers fell 200,000 and got a 0.4 rating in the key demo which I believe were it's lowest totals until the following week for I Love Lucci Pt. 2 where the viewers fell another 200,000 and the bad key demo remained at 0.4.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/02/17/wednesday-cable-ratings-justified-hot-in-cleveland-down-plus-ghost-hunters-intl-face-off-more/83081

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/02/24/wednesday-cable-ratings-top-chef-leads-night-justified-hot-in-cleveland-steady-more/83720

[Kylie]

They have to factor in both SoapNet and Online, somehow, I'm assuming. I think AMC is in a few overseas markets as well. I'd imagine that has to count for something?

[LoyaltoAMC]

I think that most people who watch these shows on Soapnet would stop watching them completely once Soapnet is gone.

[marceline]

I think the DVR number may get a little better but nothing that makes a difference. If the number of people watching on SoapNet was that significant, they wouldn't have killed it.

[marceline]

There's a lot of ratings talk going on on The Good Wife board and a pair of comments caught my attention so I thought I'd share them here before this thread goes into Ye Olde Ratings Archive.

We spend so much time dissecting the numbers that SON graciously provides that it's easy to forget that there's plenty of data that we don't get here. Breakdowns by income, ethnicity, market... then of course there's the online viewing. It just brought home to me how much we don't/can't know. Frankly, I was grateful for the reality check. It was like the Moonstruck slap for me. LOL!